king_dezeeuw06
Vital Champions League
Will Keane has had many spells in the Championship at a variety of clubs and struggled in them all. I'm not suprised people are sceptical about him performing at that level - there is a considerable weight of evidence to say he's not good enough.
But football is a funny game and sometimes a player moves clubs and their performances drastically improve or collapse and they are like a completely different player. Keane has been prolific for us, maybe that's down to being at a lower level but maybe he's one of those players who's just found his form at Wigan and he'll carry it on at a higher level. It's impossible to know until we see him next season but he will be full of confidence, which can make a huge difference to any player - if he gets a good start he may be able to carry his form into the Championship. We'll have to wait and see.
Another factor I'd say is I think there are 2 versions of how Keane plays, the first as a midfielder play maker pulling the strings and is at the heart of everything - Nick Powell like - i think that version could be a Championship player. The second is more of a deep lying striker who is looking more to get into goal scoring positions than create them and is a poacher on the periphery of games looking for moments to pop up. I think that version will more likely struggle next season, as the team generally found it difficult in L1 when Keane pushed higher and not linking everything together. Plus we'll likely be one of the weaker teams so we aren't going to be creating as many chances so that type of second striker operating on the fringes of the game is harder to accommodate.
But football is a funny game and sometimes a player moves clubs and their performances drastically improve or collapse and they are like a completely different player. Keane has been prolific for us, maybe that's down to being at a lower level but maybe he's one of those players who's just found his form at Wigan and he'll carry it on at a higher level. It's impossible to know until we see him next season but he will be full of confidence, which can make a huge difference to any player - if he gets a good start he may be able to carry his form into the Championship. We'll have to wait and see.
Another factor I'd say is I think there are 2 versions of how Keane plays, the first as a midfielder play maker pulling the strings and is at the heart of everything - Nick Powell like - i think that version could be a Championship player. The second is more of a deep lying striker who is looking more to get into goal scoring positions than create them and is a poacher on the periphery of games looking for moments to pop up. I think that version will more likely struggle next season, as the team generally found it difficult in L1 when Keane pushed higher and not linking everything together. Plus we'll likely be one of the weaker teams so we aren't going to be creating as many chances so that type of second striker operating on the fringes of the game is harder to accommodate.
